


Bloom

by SoThisIsAThingIWrote



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben is alive, Canon Divergent, Dyad schnanigans, F/M, Force Dyad (Star Wars), TROS fix it of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24120520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoThisIsAThingIWrote/pseuds/SoThisIsAThingIWrote
Summary: "The plants, Rey," Poe says, "the ones the size of my face - the whole damn command centre is covered in pollen. Two more squadrons are grounded because of kriffingflowers!"Poe throws up his hands. "We've done soil samples, water samples, atmo testing and we've got nothing- but low and behold, starting four rotations ago - plants. Everywhere, plants.What. Are. You. Two. Doing?"In which the Resistance is forced to deal with some....interestingside effects of a Dyad in the force.Post TROS, canon divergent fix it.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 23
Kudos: 243





	Bloom

A week after the Resistance defeats the Final Order, Rose wakes up to a new bloom on the potted plant she keeps on her bedside table. 

In other circumstances, this would be unremarkable. Flowers do bloom afterall; but Rose, in addition to being possessed of a gentle heart and fearless disposition, was also possessed of an only moderately green thumb and a very busy schedule. The potted plant on her bedside had been slowly but surely dying since the day Finn gave it to her. Despite its curling leaves and soil that struggles between either too little water or too much, it sits resolutely at her bedside; a testament to Rose's determination to never give up on love. Even now, the pale new blossom clings tenaciously to one spindly stem.

Rose touches one fingertip to it in sleepy wonder, before the demands of the day and the rebuilding of the Republic call her to the mess hall for caf and, as Rey is on meal rotation this week, undoubtedly slightly undercooked eggs.

Used to dehydrated pre packaged portions, when presented with fresh ingredients Rey cooks like the food is about to get up and run away if she doesn't get it out of the pan and into her mouth fast enough, but this morning she's smiling and humming as she dishes it out and no one has the heart to say anything. Rose takes her plate with a smile back, and by the time she's found a spot at one of the tables and is shoveling down watery scrambled Shirro and slightly warmed toast, she's forgotten about the flower altogether. 

It's still there when Rose returns at the end of the day, but she's too exhausted to pay attention, or to notice the tiny bit of green that's started to return to the curled leaves.

***

Making her way past the Falcon after breakfast the next morning (particularly dough-y pancakes this time) Rose spots Chewie engaged in pulling creeping vines off the ship's landing gear. With a few moments to spare, she stops to lend a hand, marveling at how well the vines have entangled themselves around cables and struts. Chewie roars his frustration at a particularly stubborn one, tearing it from the hydraulic press with a growl, revealing a second vine coiled even more intimately underneath. The growl turns into a moan of despair, and Rose pats his arm in consolation.

***

"Is this some sort of growing season?" Poe asks on the third day, batting an oversized leaf away from the command console. It had appeared overnight, pushing through the packed earth floor to sprout up and over neatly piled data pads and star charts. 

The leaf springs back and gently whacks Poe in the face. Finn, late to rise and only just arrived, snorts through his mouth full of breakfast (some sort of root vegetable hash - overly chewy). 

"If it is," Rose says, gently easing out a data pad from underneath a luridly pink blossom as big as her head, "it didn't happen this time last year." She doesn't mention the second new bloom on her plant this morning, or the fact that she passed Chewie once again pulling creepers off the Falcon. She thumbs the pad on and pulls up the local sensory data from the Resistance's daily monitoring. "Our scanners aren't picking up anything different in the atmo, or the water or soil."

"So what," Poe says, picking up a dinner plate blossom by a petal with two fingers, "is the deal with this?" He lets the flower go, and it thumps down heavily onto the table, spilling bright golden pollen across the data pads, charts, and Finn's breakfast plate. Finn squacks. Poe closes his eyes. "A whole squadron of our ships are grounded right now because some flowers, _flowers,_ have decided to use them as a new garden bed!"

"Maybe it's something else?" Finn asks, futility brushing pollen off his half eaten hash. "Maybe Rey knows?""

Secretly, Rose hopes Finn never gives up his belief that the Force is somehow directly responsible for anything and everything. Still, she muses as she rubs a bit of golden powder off the corner of the data pad, right now it's as good a theory as any. "If Rey doesn't, then maybe-" she catches herself, "her _friend_ does."

As one, the three of them look across the open air of the base to the small barracks where Rey and her _friend_ have been staying, ever since a battered x wing made a less than graceful landing on the journey back from Exegol. 

To most of the base, the very tall, very broad, very unconscious man Rey somehow hauled from the dirty ship (and clung to like a life preserver, growling at anyone who tried to come too close), is just that, Rey's _friend_ \- who-was -inexplicably-on-Exegol-with-her-don't-ask-too-many questions.

Exactly six people on the entire base know who he really is; the three of them around the table, the Wookie currently losing a three sided war between Flora, Porgs and himself for ownership and occupation of the Falcon, a wise cracking former Cantina owner who always sees too much...and an old war general, who approached Rey with placating hands in the air and helped her carry the injured man to a bed, easing him down with a murmured _"hey there little starfighter."_

Poe's lips press together. That first week, Rey's _friend_ was mostly unconscious. The past few days however, Rey has been heading back to the barracks after meal duty with her plate piled high (even for her) and coming back out with data pads full of First Order restricted intel. Right now the situation works, but eventually, some final decision on what to do with Rey's _friend_ will need to be made, and Rose can understand Poe's reluctance to start any conversation with the former Supreme Leader off with "kriffing hell, why are there suddenly so many plants _everywhere?!"_

***

_"Kriffing hell, why are there suddenly so many plants everywhere?"_

Poe points dramatically first at the two force wielders and then at the emerald green ivy that is currently creeping its way in through the open window. 

Standing next to Finn, Rose peeks around Poe at the room, and it's two occupants. Seated knee to knee, with a data pad resting over their right knees and a large shallow breakfast dish (oatmeal just this side of dry topped with irregularly chopped fruit) balanced on their left, Poe is greeted with two slightly bewildered stares.

"...What?" Rey asks

"The _plants_ , Rey," Poe says, "the ones the size of my face - the whole damn command centre is covered in pollen. Two more squadrons are grounded because of kriffing _flowers!_ " Poe throws up his hands. "We've done soil samples, water samples, atmo testing and we've got _nothing_ \- but low and behold, starting four rotations ago - _plants._ Everywhere, plants. _What. Are. You. Two. Doing?"_

"Excuse me," Rey says hotly, "what makes you think that this has _anything_ to do with - "

"This started four rotations ago?" Up close, Rey's _friend_ seems even larger. Though seated, he still manages to _loom_ somehow, but there is something in his face, in his eyes and the set of his mouth, something that's quiet and open and slightly melancholy, that Rose can't square with all of the stories she's heard. 

"Yes," Poe confirms, at the same moment Rey asks, 

"Ben?"

"Ah," Ben says. 

Rose supposes that must be his name, his true name. It's a nice name, Rose thinks randomly, but she can understand why he changed it. _Ben_ is hardly the name of someone who wields the darkside and rules the galaxy. _Ben_ is the name of someone who is understanding, gentle, and looks at the people he loves like….well, like the way he's looking at Rey right now. 

Rose narrows her eyes - is that a dusting of pink across his cheeks?

"The force of the bond," he murmurs softly, his eyes locked on Rey's. 

"...A power like life itself," Rey murmurs back. She pauses and tilts her head in thought for a moment, before her eyes suddenly grow wide. "Wait! You mean when we-" 

Ben nods. There is _definitely_ pink on his cheeks now. 

Rey looks around the room, taking in the creeping ivy spilling over the windowsill, the heavy scent of flowers in air. "This is because we - _every_ time we -" 

Ben nods again.

Rey's hands fly to her face, but Rose can see the flush creeping down her neck and over her ears. " _Oh._ "

"I think," Ben says, "we need to figure out some measure of control of that power."

"Oh what?" Finn asks, as Rey and Ben seem to carry on the conversation with nothing but their eyes. "Oh _what?_ " 

Rey blinks. "Right." She squares her shoulders, and looks at the three of them still standing in the doorway. "This _is_ a force thing, and we'll deal with it...but we need to meditate on it first. To come up with a solution."

"Meditate?"

"Yes," Rey says, her eyes already back on Ben's. "Meditate."

Poe throws his hands in the air. "Fine." He points at Ben, "you. If you're awake, you work. Breakfast duty, tomorrow." 

Turning on his heel, he ushers Rose and Finn out with him, leaving the two force users to their meditation. 

_"Kriff!"_ He shouts an hour later, when the lazily looping vine sinewing its way through the overhead lighting decides to sprout a very large, very purple blossom and drop it directly on top of his head.

***

When Rose makes her way to a table in the mess hall the next morning she finds herself stepping over roots and stems and vainly attempting to dodge stamens, which smear her pants in thick golden pollen. By the time she grabs a seat next to Kaydel, it's a lost cause, but since nearly everyone else is in various stages of the same state, she shrugs it off and digs into her breakfast. 

Rose blinks, staring down at her plate, a delicious concoction of eggs, perfectly crisp pieces of bacon, mushrooms and - Rose takes another bite - herbs. _Herbs!_

Oh this was going to be a good day.

...once she cleaned the pollen out of all of her equipment.

***

"So let me get this straight," Poe says, rubbing his forehead. "You," he points at Rey, "saved him," the finger slides from Rey to Ben, "from certain death on Kef Bir." Rey nods. "And you," Poe jabs his finger slightly in emphasis,”"literally brought her," it swings back to Rey again, "back to life on Exegol." Ben nods. "And then you," another jab in Rey's direction, "stopped him," back to Ben the finger goes, "from dying….again."

"Becoming one with the Force," Rey corrects, "but essentially, yes."

"Wait, wait, wait," Finn says, "are you telling me you two basically played hot potato….with _life?_ "

"Um, kind of?"

"Can all Jedi do this?" Poe asks, incredulously. 

"No," Rey says softly. "Ben and I...are different." Without looking, she reaches out between them, and Ben lifts his hand to thread his fingers with hers. 

_Oh_ , Rose thinks. Oh. And maybe she made a sound; a sharp intake of breath or surprised murmur, because suddenly Rey is gripping those fingers a little tighter, tilting her chin up a little higher, defiant and unashamed but still looking for acceptance-

"Who won?" Rose blurts out into the heavy silence, "like who's life force is actually the one..." she gestures between them wordlessly.

"That's the thing," Rey says, "there was only one to begin with."

Hours later Poe and Finn, as Co-Generals of the Resistance and right now, those with the highest authority, in the fledgling New Republic, step outside the room to confer. A few moments later, they call Rose out for her opinion. 

"I don't know much, anything really, about the Force," Poe says when they file back in. "But I'm pretty sure I don't want to go up against whatever can do," he gestures broadly, taking in the whole room, and the base beyond, _"all this._ The Force brought you together, made you this...Dyad thing, and it must have had a reason. _”_ He sighs, suddenly weary. "As far as the Galaxy knows, Kylo Ren died with the Final Order." Poe looks at Rey, "do you trust him?"

"Yes," Rey says instantly. "He saved my life, Poe. I'd never been able to stop the Emperor without him."

"And you'd vouch for him? And are willing to bear the consequences should...anything happen?"

"Yes. "

"And _you_ ," Poe rounds on Ben, "We'd better start hearing stories about you feeding the poor and sick or something. You make things right, however you can, and if you put one toe out of line..."

Ben, wordless, nods.

"Alright, then we don't see the point of bringing up ghosts. Let the galaxy heal and move on." Poe throws up his hands, "don't say 'thanks,' I don't want words, I want actions...starting with these _kriffing_ plants." 

***

The Falcon leaves the next day, off on the first stop of no doubt many throughout the galaxy. With it goes the overbloom of flora, and the Resistance are able to dig themselves out of vines and leaves and pack up for Chandrila, and the new home of the republic.

Rose slips the strap of her bag over her shoulder, and carefully gathers her potted plant, green and vibrant, into her arms. She'll watch some holos, Rose decides, find some data files on plant keeping. She'll do her damned best to keep it growing this time.

*** 

The rumors reach them almost as soon as they land in Chandrila. 

_Have you heard?_

_On Tatooine?_

_They say a new oasis….right out of the heart of the desert itself…._

**Author's Note:**

> ...This was supposed to be a lot sillier when I came up with it, oh well. Everybody needs some OTP goo every now and then. 
> 
> Dear god I hope the joke still came through...


End file.
